How To Create That Last Minute Holiday e-Card in Photoshop
By Fabio @ psdtuts.com

We wish you a Merry Christmas illustration
by adobetutorialz.com

I bought the ebook myself just now, and I’m going to read it over Christmas. I’ll post a review as soon as I finish it. Personally I am sure that this is a very helpful read for everyone that want to get into the freelance/entrepreneur business.

212 Pages of Expert Freelancing Advice

Covering everything from getting started to expanding your business, How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer is the official FreelanceSwitch book. Written by Collis & Cyan Ta’eed - the founders of the site - it’s packed with new information, advice and insights not covered on the FS blog.

The book is on sale now as an eBook for $29 at FreelanceSwitch and they’ll have a printed version for sale on Lulu for $35 in January. You can read the Table of Contents and Purchase the Book at FSw.

One of Stockvault’s sister sites, www.texturepacks.net just got a nice and moody makeover. I’ve been working on the new design for the past couple of weeks, trying to illustrate how one can use all those excellent textures when designing websites. I think I did a swell job, or at least the site has gotten some great responses so far. If you’re not sure what the site is all about, it’s basically a mini stock photo site where you can buy high resolution texture images in packs of 25. The textures can be used for both personal and commercial work.

Check out the new design here, and please let me know what you think.

An excellent timing for an article like this when we are waiting for your entries for the Best Stock Photo of 2007 competition. Although written in May’07, it has some great tips on how you should think when shooting for contests, and also how to prepare your images. An insight into a judges mind when he faces hundreds of submitted images and only gets to pick a few.

A must read for those who want to win photo contests (or learn how to compose kick-ass photos).

How to win photography competitions

“The next great photographers—if there are to be any—will have to find a way to reclaim photography’s special link to reality. And they’ll have to do it in a brand-new way.”

The last art form to be tethered to realism, its factual validity has lately been manipulated and pixelated to the point of extinction.

How is that even remotely possible? The medium certainly looks alive, well and, if anything, overpopulated. There are hordes of photographers out there, working with back-to-basics pinhole cameras and pixeled images measured in gigabytes, with street photography taken by cell phones and massive photo “shoots” whose crews, complexity and expense resemble those of movie sets. Step into almost any serious art gallery in Chelsea, Santa Monica or Mayfair and you’re likely to be greeted with breathtaking large-format color photographs, such as Andreas Gefeller’s overhead views of parking lots digitally montaged from thousands of individual shots or Didier Massard’s completely “fabricated photographs” of phantasmagoric landscapes.

Read the rest of the article here

Personally I don’t think that manipulating, editing and modifying images is killing photography as an art form. It’s been like that from the very beginning.
What is your opinion, do you think photography is dead?

After the success of last year’s competition, Stockvault.net announces that its Best Stock Photo competition will be held again this year. First prize in the 2007 competition is $1,000 cash and the contest is open to everyone – professional photographers, photography students, designers, and anyone else who loves taking photographs.

Last year’s competition received over 5,000 entries from over 1,000 photographers around the world.
Although competition will be fierce again this year, please do not hesitate to enter – amazing shots are taken every day by amateur photographers.

For more information, or to enter, please visit the contest page.

© Photographer: Tmcnem

Just to keep you updated on the upgrade and the contest process…

I’m running behind schedule on the upgrading part, where I’m updating the gallery system to the newest version of Photostore. Since Stockvault.net has a very unique design, I have to edit and modify the gallery templates to fit in the design and make sure all the modifications I’ve had done in the past, work. That job is taking more time than I thought, plus, I’ve also made some changes to the new layout that need to be tested and such. I was planning on starting the “Best Stock Photo Of 2007″ contest after I’d upgrade the gallery system, but I’m not sure that will be soon enough. Because of that, I will be starting the contest this weekend, so you can have at least over a month to send in your entries. Stockvault.net is a one mans site, and I use most of my free time working on the upgrade. Expect the contest to start this weekend, and dust of your cameras!

© Photographer: Janpietruszka

I came across the photopreneur.com blog today and read through some of their articles about photography. They have some excellent tips on how to stay on top of things, and make some money with your photos.

Creating More Time for More Creative Photography
“Whether you’re an amateur, a hobbyist or a professional, we’re certain there’s one thing you just never have enough of…….. Time.

For professionals and semi-pros, time is money. If you can work faster, you can charge a more competitive price, squeeze more jobs into the month and earn a higher income.

For hobbyists, more time means more fun. It means getting more pleasure from your camera, learning at a quicker rate and producing more images that make you proud.

Usually on this blog, we focus on how you can earn from your photography. But since money and time are so connected, here are five tips that might help you get more out of the time you have available…”

Read the rest of this article here.

A few other articles by photopreneur worth checking out:

How to Keep Your Job and Be a Part Time Photographer
Keywording Secrets For Big Photo Sales
Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Professional Photographer?
52 Ways To Monetize Your Photos
The Top 5 Biggest Micro Stock Photography Mistakes